Quarantine: Revisited
by fanficismysecretobsession
Summary: Take one teen detective, mix with an ex, his new girlfriend, his pervy bestfriend, and her traumatised best friend and what do you get? A disaster waiting to happen. Veronica is once again trapped in a hotel room for the night. Sequel-ish to Quarantine.


**A/N: So here is a sequel of sorts to Quarantine, which I wrote a while back. I hope you enjoy this one as much as the first, although you don't need to have read it for this to make sense. To all my regular readers ****I apologise profusely! I do have an excuse but you probably don't really care. I've written a new chapter for '40 Days and 40 Nights' but it's corrupt, or something, so I have to redo it or something, but that's coming. And I'm trying my hardest to do some more writing soon!**

_Thursday, 9__th__ June. 6:30 p.m._

"It's just a quick in and out, Mac, I promise." Veronica Mars reasoned with her best friend, as they sat in Mac's green Beetle in the parking lot of the Neptune Grande Hotel. "I know my shirt is in there somewhere, and knowing Logan it'll be separate from anything that Parker might see."

"I just don't see why you need a specific shirt to go see Jack Johnson." Mac groaned, already opening the door and getting out of the car.

"Because it's special." Veronica replied, in lieu of a real explanation. "Plus, it's like my favourite shirt, so I want it back anyway. The gig is just a good excuse." The two girls walked through the lobby of the hotel and took the lift up to the Presidential Suite. "I wish Logan would just move out of this place already. I mean, it was fair enough when he didn't have the time to look for a new place, but Parker said he's doing half as many classes this year, so there's no excuse to stay here anymore."

"I agree; too many memories." Mac mumbled. Veronica took out her old key card and slotted it into the door. "Should you really be doing that? I mean, surely you and Logan have some kind of deal not to barge into each other's lives now, don't you?"

"We have no such thing." Veronica defended herself, before sheepishly admitting, "But he doesn't know I still have the key, so maybe he doesn't realise that we probably need that rule."

She pushed the door open and surveyed the room in front of her. Age had made neither Logan nor Dick more adept at tidying up after themselves, and old room service trays mixed with books, papers and clothes were strewn all over the place. Hearing voices in the bathroom, Veronica and Mac wandered to the doorway.

A familiar sight met Veronica's eyes. Dick was perched on the bathroom counter, watching a tense Logan have a needle injected into his arm. The doctor removing Logan's blood was the same one that had been there two years ago, and there was even a blonde girlfriend sitting on the edge of the bathtub. The only difference was that Logan's girlfriend was now Parker Lee, a feisty chick from Denver.

"What disease might Dick have contracted this time?" Veronica sighed, already rolling up her sleeve. All four occupants of the room looked up in shock. "Yeah, yeah, major déjà vu, I know. How're you doing, Dr Porter?"

"I'm very well, thank you, Miss Mars." Veronica was surprised that the friendly doctor still remembered her, and grinned as a needle was inserted just below her elbow. "I'm afraid that this time it's Hepatitis B." Veronica growled, glaring at Dick.

"And how long is the quarantine this time?"

"It's less than before – only 12 hours. Excuse me, miss, I need to take a sample of your blood." Dr Porter said, turning to Mac.

"How did you guess that Dick might have caught a disease?" Parker asked, searching her friend's face.

"Didn't Logan tell you?" Parker shook her head and Veronica continued. "Dick almost caught meningitis a couple of years ago, and we ended up being quarantined in a very similar way. The only differences are Logan having a different girlfriend, and Mac being here."

"Oh. So you and Logan were together last time?" Logan noticed the undertone of jealousy in Parker's voice, but Veronica carried on unawares.

"Oh, God no. Not in the beginning, anyway." She trailed off and grinned at Logan, who also seemed to be remembering the last time he had been trapped like this.

"Wait, there's something I've got to know." Mac said, pulling Logan and Veronica out of their memories. "How the hell did you contract Hepatitis, Dick?"

The blond surfer opened his mouth to defend himself, but Veronica cut across him. "I think I can answer this one, Dick. He met a bangin' babe at a party and he just had to do her, and then the next day her roommate rang up and said that she had been taken to hospital with Hepatitis and there was a chance he had caught it off her." She said, confidently.

Dick just nodded dumbly, as Mac looked curiously at her friend. "How did you know that?"

"That's what happened last time, with the meningitis. I just assumed that Dick had been stupid and done the same thing again." Veronica explained. "For a boy who's managed to avoid STIs like the plague, you sure do get in the way of a lot of contagious diseases, Dick."

"Guess I'm just unlucky, Ronnie. Not all of us can get Chlamydia." He retorted.

"Never forget how I got that Chlamydia, Casablancas." Veronica's voice was sharp, but Logan noticed that she was quite at ease referring to her rape. He was glad – it meant she had finally got some closure. Dick blushed and looked slightly ashamed of his quick tongue, and Mac had swallowed some air and had a huge coughing fit as soon as Veronica had referred to Cassidy. Parker and the doctor both looked on in astonishment.

"Am I missing something here?" Parker asked.

"Oh, so much." Logan told her, gently. "Maybe we'll fill you in later on, but you've gotta bear in mind that this is a sensitive topic for all of us." She nodded, understandingly.

"Well, I'm going to get these blood samples tested. I hope, for your sake, that you don't have Hepatitis, Mr Casablancas. I'll return around seven am tomorrow." Dr Porter announced, packing away the vials of blood and her needles. "Have a good night."

_Thursday, 9__th__ June. 6:45 p.m._

Logan wasn't sure how things were going to turn out this time round. After all, last time, the situation had been different. Veronica and Dick had hated each other, Logan and Hannah hadn't been in a relationship for very long, Hannah and Veronica had hated each other, and there had been no one but him to be a shield when all the insults started flying. This time, however, Veronica and Dick were definitely friends, Veronica and Parker were good friends, Logan and Parker had been dating for several months and Mac was there to help him contain any arguments. There was also the fact that four people in the room were united by a shared experience of the horror of Cassidy's suicide, and the events which had preceded it, while one of them had not.

"I can't believe we have to miss Jack Johnson just because of some stupid shirt." Mac burst out, a few minutes into their imprisonment. No one had spoken since Dr Porter had left the suite, and everyone jumped slightly at her words.

"You were going to see Jack Johnson?" Logan's jealousy was audible.

"Yeah, we were, but Veronica decided that she needed some shirt that she thought she'd left here and never reclaimed, and that it was vital to her gigging pleasure or something, so we came here. And look where that got us; looked in a hotel room with no chance of getting out in time to see even one song!" Mac was getting into her stride by now.

"I know, I know, and I'm really sorry. But you don't understand the importance of the shirt, Maccy." Veronica said, tried to placate her best friend. "It's intrinsically tied up in my mind with Jack Johnson, so if I hadn't worn it I wouldn't have had as good a time as I could have."

"Yeah, but at least you would have had some kind of a time at all. We're not even having a _bad_ time at the Jack Johnson gig now. And it's all because of you." Mac sat down on the sofa in a sulk.

"I can't believe you were gonna go see Jack Johnson without me." Logan's tone was accusing as he turned to face Veronica.

"I'm sorry! Piz could only hook us up with two tickets, or the radio station would have realised that he'd removed them from the competition." Veronica explained. "If I'd got them by more legal means I would have bought you a ticket too."

"What's the big deal about Jack Johnson? I never really liked his music." Parker asked.

The other four people in the room all turned to stare at her. As one they all said, incredulously, _"You don't like Jack Johnson?"_

Aware that she had made some grave error in the minds of the four Neptune natives, Parker said tentatively, "Well, no, I don't. I think he's overrated, and acoustic stuff is boring, anyway."

Her friends were shocked. "Jack Johnson is God." Logan told her, gently.

"Logan practically wants to be him. He thinks they're kindred spirits – you know, both troubled surfer dudes." Veronica said, laughing slightly.

"Better Together was our song all through that summer, remember?" Logan replied.

"Of course I do, how could I not remember?" She asked him. They both just looked at each other.

"Well, anyway," Parker interjected swiftly, noticing the change in atmosphere. "I've always preferred Eminem to Jack Johnson." She knew she'd succeeded in breaking up the moment between Veronica and Logan when the two of them, plus Dick and Mac, rounded on her and began telling her exactly why Jack Johnson was far better than Eminem in every way.

_Thursday, 9__th__ June. 7:01 p.m._

Veronica was resigned to her fate. She had known the second she'd seen Dr Porter that she would be losing her night while she waited for a blood test to tell her what she already knew – that she didn't have Hepatitis. She was pissed off about missing Jack Johnson, but glad that she at least had her laptop and one of her Criminology textbooks, and so could do some work instead. She knew that everyone in the suite got along well, and so wasn't worried about any blow ups, although she had a feeling that Dick or Mac might spontaneously combust from staying in each other's presence for too long.

"Check mate." The five twenty-somethings had quickly descended into boredom after their musical debate. Veronica had swiftly begun working on her Criminology essay, while the other four had been reduced to a chess tournament. "I win, so I think that's ten dollars for me." Mac said, triumphantly. She had been opposed to the stupid rule of the winner of each game receiving five dollars, while the overall winner of the tournament received an extra ten, but had decided she liked it, after winning the first game against Dick. "Who dares to play me next?"

"I will," Logan volunteered, picking Parker off his lap and moving towards the board. "How did we end up with a chess board in here anyway?"

"Beats me, dude, I always thought you and Ronnie bought it in case you got bored with sex or something." Dick replied, trying to read what was on Veronica's laptop screen. He was glad that she couldn't hear what he'd just said, as Logan punched him hard in the arm. "You'll never beat Ghostworld, by the way – she's a chess genius or something. Probably did Chess Club back at Neptune High."

"I didn't, actually," Mac told him, concentrating hard as she thought of her next move. "Veronica taught me in detention once. She's the one you don't want to play against; that girl is damn good for someone who denies liking chess."

"Veronica plays chess? That doesn't seem like her at all." Parker said, as the four of them turned to study the blonde sitting on the couch, typing furiously. Logan could picture her sitting at the kitchen table of her old house being taught the rules by her father. It was exactly the kind of stereotypical daddy-daughter bonding that he had expected of the old Keith and Veronica. The new versions of the younger and older Mars would never be caught dead playing chess together – they had new ways of bonding now – but before Lilly's death that would have been exactly what they did. For her part, Parker couldn't reconcile her image of Veronica as some kind of badass angel with the idea of her playing chess, which she thought of as a sport only for nerds and loners.

"She doesn't like to admit it, but Mars is a bit of a board-game fiend." Logan chuckled. "Monopoly, chess, the occasional game of backgammon, and of course Cluedo."

"That doesn't seem like her at all." Parker mused. They continued watching Veronica until she glanced up and froze, like a deer in the headlights.

"Why are you all staring at me?" She asked, slowly, pulling out her earplugs.

"Parker didn't think you were a chess person." Dick explained, "So we were just seeing whether you looked like one."

"Wow, that's not weird at all." She said, sarcastically. "Don't you guys have better things to do?"

"We could play I've Never, like last time." Dick suggested, hopefully. Somehow, he never got tired of that game.

"No, Dick! We aren't playing I've Never – don't forget how much trouble that caused last time." Veronica scolded him.

"Of course I remember, Ronnie; I suggested it that time for the very reason that I wanted to cause some trouble." Dick explained, patiently. She responded by chucking a pillow at him, which hit his head at the same time as one thrown by Logan. "Fine, chess it is then." He sighed.

_Thursday, 9__th__ June. 7:27 p.m._

Mac was worried. She and Dick had a very good policy of politely acknowledging each other, and talking only about wide, impersonal topics - neither wanted to remember the other's relationship with Cassidy, or any of the events around graduation. She knew, however, that it was quite likely that they would end up talking about the younger Casablancas, and she wasn't sure how she was going to cope. It would be severely embarrassing to break down in front of Dick and Logan.

She had successfully beaten everyone except Veronica, who refused to leave her Criminology essay until it was perfect, and earned herself thirty dollars in the process. Parker and Logan were going through the room service menu, working out what to order for their next meal, Dick was busy playing video games, and Mac herself was attempting to fix Parker's messed up laptop. Everything was pretty tranquil, and Mac had decided that maybe this wasn't such a bad substitute for the Jack Johnson gig.

"Well, I'm gonna order the lamb chops with broad beans, but no mashed potato. I've got to watch my figure, after all." Parker announced.

"How grown-up of you." Logan teased. "I'll get pizza, Dick'll want pizza, and Ronnie'll have the manicotti. Apparently it's better than the Grande's lasagne."

"I keep on forgetting that you and Veronica spent a bit of time together here." Parker admitted. Logan nodded, silently, slightly annoyed that she had dismissed his relationship with Veronica as 'a bit of time.' "But I think she'd like the lamb chops, actually. We were talking the other day about her diet and she told me that she was gonna cut down on all the fatty Italian food."

Logan frowned. "That doesn't sound like Ronnie." He commented.

"Well, Logan, she has changed quite a lot since you guys dated last year. You can't just expect everyone to stay exactly the same, now can you?" Parker said, in a slightly patronising tone of voice.

"Ronnie!" Logan called. Veronica hadn't heard him – her music being turned up to eardrum-popping levels – and continued working on her essay. He strode over to her and pulled out her earphones. "Ronnie. Manicotti or lamb chops with no mashed potatoes?"

She gave him a puzzled look. "It's like you don't know me at all, Echolls." She laughed slightly as she spoke and gave him a 'duh' look. "I'll have the manicotti. Always the manicotti."

He smiled, satisfied that his Ronnie wasn't planning on changing her trademark taste in food anytime soon, and leaned over her shoulder to look at her essay. "Surely you've been working on the Crim for long enough."

"You say that, but I can see at least twelve things wrong on my first page." She told him, laughing. "I shall not rest till this essay is perfect."

"Well, maybe you should let someone from the outside, like me, take a look and see if it's perfect." Logan suggested.

"Let me be the judge of perfection here." Dick announced, swinging himself out of his armchair and sauntering over to Veronica and her laptop. "As the most perfect person here, I should know it when I see it."

Everyone laughed, and Veronica slapped him on the arm. "I always thought Kendall was the most perfect Casablancas." Logan mused, teasingly.

"She gets disqualified for being a total trophy wife, and a criminal, and for the fact that you were blinded by lust." Veronica pointed out. "But I can think of way more perfect people than Dick."

"In this room?" Dick asked, sceptically.

"Well, there _is _me for one." Veronica told him, gesturing to herself in mock arrogance.

"I'll second that." Logan muttered. Parker glanced sharply over at him, having heard the words he'd not meant anyone to hear. "But I think you're forgetting the King of Perfection, Richard, as named by Teen Vogue's Spring Break edition; me."

"You got into Teen Vogue as King of Perfection?" Mac and Veronica both asked at the same time, sarcasm and scepticism dripping from every word.

"I did, and I beat out Josh Hartnett, so you all ought to be very honoured to be in the presence of so perfect a specimen." He replied, chuckling.

"And to think, I used to date the King of Perfection!" Veronica exclaimed, in mock delight and regret.

Parker narrowed her eyes – she did not want some kind of reminiscing to start. "You've got quite the record for dating royalty, actually, V." Mac pointed out. "After all, you've dated the King of Neptune High twice."

"Very true." Veronica paused for a second in thought. "Really I ought to go onto real royalty. Anyone know whether Prince William is single?"

_Thursday 9__th__ June. 8:57 p.m._

"Dudes, can we please, please play some kind of slumber party game." Dick groaned. "Truth or Dare, I've Never, Spin the Bottle, anything! I'm so fucking bored!"

Veronica, now on third stage of proof reading, rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Dick, I thought you were a master at playing with yourself!"

"On the contrary, there's always been a hottie to play with me." He shot back, as Mac laughed at her friend's comment.

"Even when Madison wouldn't put out? I believe that was round the time of Shelley Pomeroy's party." Veronica replied.

"Okay, so then I may have done a bit of 'self-servicing' but that was so long ago I've practically forgotten how to have fun without a girl going down on me." He whined.

"Ooh, poor Dick, never been through a dry spell." Logan teased. "Always had some former playboy bunny to sleep with."

"You can't talk, Logan. You were either with Lilly, me, Kendall, Parker or one of the countless in betweener sluts you've met." Veronica told him, scathingly. "As soon as you break up with a girlfriend you're doing a different girl every night, and don't even try to deny it because you've been doing it since you moved to Neptune."

"There was actually quite a large gap after each time you dumped me, Ronnie." He replied, quietly and seriously. "Besides, you've always had a guy."

"Oh, no way can you say that! My first boyfriend was Duncan, aged fourteen, he dumped me and I didn't date anyone for over a year. Troy and Leo barely counted, then there was you, and I didn't get back together with Duncan for a month. After Duncan there was another gap of at least two months without anyone before graduation and getting back together with you. And then there was a really long gap between breaking up with you and going out with Piz." She reeled off, staring at him defiantly the whole time. "And I haven't dated anyone since dumping him four months ago. My track record is way cleaner than yours."

"Okay, okay, you win." Logan raised his hands in the air as a form of surrender. "I vote for another game, too – everyone here is far to strung out."

"Well, Dick's got a sure fire way to make everyone relax. It's called GHB." Veronica said, scathingly.

"Look am I gonna have to sit you three down so that you can have some kind of exorcism and all be friends again?" Logan asked, looking from Veronica to Dick to a silent Mac. None of them spoke. "Looks like we're playing a game. It's called 'I'm sorry for'."

"I'm sorry for?" Mac asked, finally speaking up. "That's a bit transparent, isn't it?"

"Well, I've tried the subtle approach too many times, and it obviously isn't working, so we're gonna have to go for something more direct, even if it means everyone feeling a bit uncomfortable." He replied, firmly.

"A little uncomfortable? Dude, you do realise that me and Ghost World have set up a great system of never talking about anything to do with…him, and we might not appreciate it being undermined." Dick exclaimed.

"I did realise and I also realise that it isn't healthy. If there's one thing that lame therapist I saw over Christmas taught me, it's that things shouldn't stay bottled up inside."

"Would somebody be kind enough to tell me what the hell you guys are talking about?" Parker burst out, bitterly.

"Dick's brother raped me, lied about it, dated Mac, killed a bus full of people, killed a plane full of people, tortured me and then threw himself off the roof of this hotel on the night after Graduation." Veronica told her. "And that's just the cliff notes version."

"You forgot to mention that he basically had our dad convicted of fraud." Dick muttered. "Where d'you want us to go talk it all out, Logan?"

"I don't think I need to talk it out!" Veronica protested. "I have a really good way of not letting these things stay bottled up."

"Yeah, you use yourself as bait to catch rapists, really healthy." Logan snapped.

"Don't judge; you've become way more overprotective when you're around any girl as a result of your own botched attempt at closure." She reminded him. "Parker, does he let you get lifts from male friends?"

"No, but I always assumed that he was worried about what Mercer did to me." The taller blonde replied.

"Well, it probably is, but it started partly because he decided that even people you're friends with can do things to you – all because me and Cassidy were friends."

"Cassidy messed us all up seriously, didn't he?" Mac commented, quietly. Her four friends looked over in concern. "I mean, he got to take the easy way out, and not face any repercussions, but he left Veronica having been raped, me having slept with a rapist and murderer, Dick feeling guilty for how he treated his brother, and Logan feeling guilty for how he treated his friend."

"He has an aversion to nicknames now, you know." Veronica remarked, putting her arm around Mac's shoulders, and nodding at Logan. "You, me and Dick are the only people he doesn't refer to by their full name."

"I'll never forget his last words; 'Don't call me Beaver.' Do you guys think it's my fault he jumped?" Logan asked, vulnerable for the first time in the conversation.

"I think he would have done it anyway, man, cos my little brother wouldn't have been able to face himself after all that shit he did." Dick said, with an air of finality that stopped all conversation.

_Thursday 9__th__ June. 9:32 p.m._

"I'm sorry for calling you his beard, Mac." Dick suddenly burst out. The suite had been filled with contemplative silence since the conversation about Cassidy, and his words shocked everyone into a more alert state.

"Um, thanks, Dick, but what was that for?" Mac was confused, as were the others.

"We were gonna play that game Logan made up. You know, 'I'm sorry for' and I realised that there was something else I'm sorry for." He explained.

"I'm sorry for not telling you about Australia, Logan." Veronica said, as the two of them shared a smile, remembering what had come out of that revelatory conversation.

"I'm sorry for faking your purity test and giving you a fourteen." Logan replied, grinning.

"I'm sorry for blaming you for missing Jack Johnson, V." Mac told her.

"I'm sorry for telling Piz that you had a crush on him, Veronica." Parker exclaimed.

"What?" Veronica asked, confused.

"I told Piz that you had a crush on him, so that he'd actually do something about his crush on you and ask you out." Parker admitted. "I thought you two would be cute together, but I was obviously wrong."

"Well, that sheds some light on a subject that was certainly confusing me." Mac commented, through a fit of the giggles. The others looked at her inquisitively. "Piz was obviously crushing on Veronica, but he had worked out that she might not be over Logan, so he told me that he'd decided to let her make the first move, if there was gonna be one. Next thing I knew Veronica was calling me up all confused because Piz had just asked her out, completely out of the blue."

"It was a bit of a shock." Veronica admitted. "But he was a nice guy and we had some fun before someone made me realise that I was using him as some kind of Duncan substitute when I didn't even want Duncan." She glanced over at Logan, who grinned crookedly.

"Who's Duncan?" Parker asked Dick.

"Yet another issue from before Hearst. Trust me, you're better off not knowing all these things, they just complicate life and confuse outsiders." Dick told her. "Hell, with that whole Duncan-Veronica-Logan thing, even I'm confused, and I'm friends with them all."

"Duncan is a long gone over subject who is in no way able to influence our lives anymore, Parker. Briefly, he's my twice over ex, and Logan's old best friend." Veronica explained.

"Less briefly, he's my first girlfriend's brother, who also happens to be my best friend, Veronica's ex, my ex's ex, her best friend's brother, my ex's brother, and puppet master back at Neptune High." Logan cut in. "It's a whole lot of bother that you don't want or need to know."

Parker didn't seem satisfied with those answers, but didn't ask anything more about Duncan.

"I'm sorry that I broke your first X-box, man." Dick announced, giving Logan a manly hug.

"I'm sorry for doing your step-mom, dude." Logan replied, laughing.

"I'm sorry for all the cryptic favours I always ask you for, Maccy." Veronica said to her best friend.

"I'm sorry for always asking for a cut of the fee." Mac told her, laughing, "But it doesn't mean either of us will stop!"

"I'm sorry I didn't get to see you guys in high school. You must have been crazy." Parker said, to the group as a whole.

"And I'm sorry that the minibar has vanished as soon as I need a drink." Veronica joked, getting up. "Echolls, what the hell happened to your fridge?"

"It's in my room, Ronnie, calm down. Dick and I got separate ones because I kept finding condoms that he'd left in the communal one." Logan also got up, and the two of them walked over to his doorway. "Vodka and coke alright for everyone?"

The others nodded, and Logan and Veronica began mixing drinks on his bed.

"So do you think anything would have happened with you and Piz if Parker hadn't lied to him?" Logan asked, casually.

"Hell no. I thought he was cute, but that was about it until I got to know him while we were dating. I certainly wouldn't have made the first move or anything, so we just wouldn't have happened." She admitted, as Logan let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding in. "But it was a quick way to move on."

"So you've completely moved on?" Logan's voice was husky and low.

"Have you?" She challenged.

"I thought I had, but I'm not so sure now." He admitted to her. "Your turn."

"I said it was a quick way, not a good way." She reminded him. She looked up at him through her lashes, and he realised that she really hadn't changed a bit since Junior year. Sure, she was more open, more trusting, and more popular. But she was the same old cryptic Veronica, bad at expressing her feelings and suspicious of affection, underneath it all.

He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut across him. "I'm sorry I almost got raped."

"I'm sorry I got you to help Mercer."

"I'm sorry I always ran."

"I'm sorry I didn't follow."

"I'm sorry I never said I love you." She whispered, bringing her lips up to meet his.

Logan had just slipped his tongue into her mouth – oh how he'd missed her mouth, how he'd missed _her_ – when they heard surprised voices outside, and Dick yelled "Guys! You'll never believe who's here!" They broke apart, reluctantly, and looked at each other.

"Keep quiet for now?" Veronica asked.

"Sounds like a perfect plan." He agreed, before adding, "Not that I want to keep quiet forever, but under quarantine with my actual girlfriend is surely not the time to announce that we still have feelings for each other and are gonna give it another shot. We are gonna give it another shot, aren't we?"

"That was pretty much what I was thinking, and of course we are. Don't we always? Now come on, I wanna see who it is that has Dick so squeaky and surprised."

They picked up the glasses of vodka and coke they'd managed to mix and walked back into the main room. The person being hugged by Dick was the last person either of them had expected to see.

"Duncan?" Veronica asked, incredulously, as Logan dropped his glasses, spilling mixers all over his front and Veronica's back. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey, Veronica, You look good." He grinned, and enveloped her in an enormous hug. "I missed you, but, uh, why are you all wet?"

"That would be my fault." Logan admitted, as Veronica twisted round to try and see her own back. "Surprise at seeing you caused me to chuck vodka and coke all over Ronnie." He gave his old friend a manly hug, before turning back to the tiny blonde, who had given up the impossible task of trying to look at her back and was instead staring at Duncan in shock. "Come on, Ronnie, you can wear my green stripy shirt if you want."

He led her back into his bedroom, and began to rummage through his drawers. "You could of course wear one of the countless shirts of yours that are still knocking about somewhere."

"When offered the green shirt, I always take it." Veronica giggled, coming out of her state of shock. "It's like he knew we were talking about him, and dismissing him, so he came back to remind us again."

"He always did have a knack of walking in when people were complaining about him." Logan agreed, watching openly as she peeled off her shirt and buttoned up his one. "I wonder what he's doing back."

"Why don't you just ask me?" Duncan asked, from the doorway. "Surely you shouldn't be ogling Veronica like that with your girlfriend next door, Logan. Have some kind of tact."

"How did you know she's my girlfriend?" Logan asked, as they walked out of his bedroom, Veronica between them in Logan's enormous shirt.

"Mac told me. She's been catching me up on gossip while you two played dress-up. That's a rather large shirt, Ronica."

Veronica glanced down at her self. Logan's shirt was mint green with darker pin stripes, and his favourite. It was his 'second date' shirt, as well as his 'birthday shirt' and 'special occasion' shirt. The shirt was famously not borrowed by anyone, because Logan would throw a fit if a friend even asked, but Veronica had always taken and worn it, since he'd been given it the summer before college. It fell to mid-thigh on her, and covered the tattered denim mini skirt she was wearing.

"It's perfect, actually, Donut." She replied, sitting on the couch and pulling him down next to her. "Now. What are you doing back? How are you here and not arrested? Where's Lilly? Why didn't you tell me you were coming back? Have you finally got your GED? And why are you wearing glasses?"

Duncan looked surprised. "Holy shit, Veronica, learn to breathe." She grinned sheepishly, as Logan sat down on her other side, and unconsciously put his arm around her shoulder. Neither of them noticed his actions, but Parker looked upset, and Mac, Duncan and Dick were surprised. "Well, uh, I guess you want me to answer all those questions now." Duncan remarked. Veronica nodded again, leaning her head against Logan's shoulder. "Okay then, I'm back so that I can go to college and get a job, I haven't been arrested because the Mannings got done for child abuse and had to drop the charges, Lilly is spending one night with social services before she can come live with me, I didn't tell you because I wanted to surprise you, I have indeed got my GED, and I'm wearing glasses because not everyone has 20/20 vision like you do."

"Wow." Was all Logan was able to say.

"That's amazing!" Veronica squealed. "You and Lilly can start a new life here, near Auntie Veronica!"

"Hey, hey, if she gets to be Auntie Veronica do I at least get to be Uncle Logan?" Logan cut in, finding his voice.

"I, uh, actually named you two Godparents if anything happened to me, back when she was born." Duncan admitted.

"I'm a Godparent, and I didn't even know?" Veronica asked. "We talked for hours on messenger and disposable cells, and you didn't see fit to tell me I'm a Godmother? No one tells me anything anymore! Where did the fear go?"

"The fear kinda goes when you put out, Ronnie." Logan told her, teasingly. "It's impossible to be too scared of you after being confronted with your orgasm face."

"Okay, uh, this is weird." Duncan remarked, at the same time as Parker exclaimed, "Inappropriate, Logan!"

"Aw, come on, DK, if we aren't going to swap embarrassing 'oh look, we've all slept with the same people' stories, then how are we going to have a proper reunion?" Logan asked, laughing at the shocked look on his friend's face.

"I have a game." Mac suggested. "It's slightly more subtle than 'I'm sorry for'."

"Hey, don't mock my masterpiece!" Logan protested. "It worked, didn't it?"

"In more ways than one." Veronica muttered, before turning to Mac and speaking louder, "What's the game, Mackenzie?"

_Thursday 9__th__ June. 10:14 p.m._

"Damn it! I can't think of two things that no one in this room knows about me!" Veronica exclaimed. "Between Logan, Duncan and Mac I think they've got my whole life and all my secrets covered."

"Come on, V, there must be something." Mac reasoned. "The whole point of the game is not only to get to know everyone else better, but to get to know _yourself_ better."

"Honestly, Mac, this doesn't strike me as your kind of game." Dick mused. "Sounds a little too, I don't know, girl scout for you."

"I told her about it one drunken night last year, but she's taken all the credit for it." Parker explained, industriously writing down her two secrets and then throwing them into the Party Hog, which was sitting on the coffee table in the middle of the group.

"I knew it! This reeks way more of Parker than of Mac." Veronica exclaimed, triumphantly. "I remember when she made us do a love cleansing ritual, at a time when we were all single."

"Love cleansing ritual?" Logan asked, sceptically.

"Like they do in Friends. You burn something belonging to each of your exes and then your love life turns around and you stop dating dirt bags." She explained. "Of course, I was back together with Logan within a fortnight, so it just goes to show how stupid those rituals are." She added, grinning.

"What did you burn?" Duncan asked, popping his own secrets into the keg.

"Your paperback copy of The Picture of Dorian Grey, the paper napkin with Leo's cell phone number on it, my ticket to the homecoming dance with Troy, and Logan's polka-dot boxers." She told him, proudly. Her own, laboriously chosen secrets were the last to by dropped in the Party Hog. "Who's picking first?"

"I will." Dick announced. " 'My first kiss was with a thirty year-old.'"

The group groaned and pulled faces. "That's disgusting!" Duncan exclaimed.

"Guess we can count the Donut out." Logan commented, laughing at the look on his friend's face. "I also know it wasn't Dick, because his first kiss was with Veronica during Spin the Bottle."

Veronica looked ashamed, and tried to avoid the astonished looks Mac was sending her way. "It wasn't Logan because his first kiss was Scarlett Johansson when he was eight, because she thought he was sweet." She decided. "And Mac's first kiss was Cassidy."

"Which leaves Parker." Duncan rationalised. "That's pretty gross."

"In my defence, he kissed me and I reported him for child molestation, when I was thirteen." She protested, giggling. "But I did come onto him first!"

Veronica shook her head, "Just read the next one, you sick, sick freak."

"'I once downed a whole bottle of vodka because I thought it was water.'" Parker read. "Wow, how drunk did you get, Logan?"

"That was not me, actually." He told her. "Going by contextual evidence I'd say it was Veronica."

"I puked." Veronica confirmed.

"But, how?" Parker asked, "Logan said his mom was an alcoholic, so I just assumed…"

"My mom was, and probably still is, an even bigger alcoholic than Lynn Echolls was." Veronica told her. "So big that she stole $10, 000 from me and my dad, which is why I ended up at Hearst instead of Stanford."

"Well, the theft, and me, of course." Logan laughed. "I wouldn't let you leave, remember."

"True, true. Anyway, 'I know all the words to It's Raining Men.' Well, that's just weird."

"Dick! It has to be Dick." Duncan shouted. "He did a strip routine to it when we were all trying to get into the Tritons back in high school."

"Damn it, man, I forgot you were there!" Dick moaned. "That was the single most embarrassing moment of my life, and I thought everyone who knew had left Neptune, but now you're here and the secret's out again." He sighed and picked out another piece of paper. "'I am Madison Sinclair.' Creepy, and luckily not true."

"Come on, Mac, I'm the one who worked that whole thing out, remember?" Veronica groaned. "Too easy, and it's not like I've forgotten that you could have been my one 09er ally after Logan and Duncan defected."

"Shit, forgot about you." Mac laughed. "'I've only been in love twice.'"

"Duncan." Logan announced. "Ronnie and Meg."

"Logan." Veronica countered. "Lilly and me."

"Veronica." Dick added. "Duncan and Logan."

"Well, well, well, we have a three way tie." Mac laughed. "So who actually wrote it?"

The four Neptune natives looked at each other, daring the culprit to speak. Unnoticed, Parker was looking anguished; she had assumed that after six months of dating, Logan was in love with her, and therefore out of the running for that statement. His silent affirmation of Veronica's accusation had hurt her badly, but she didn't want to let it show.

"I'd say Logan's sentimental enough to have written it." Veronica suggested. "But Duncan, if he could work up the courage, would also be sappy enough."

"Veronica's way too hard to admit something like that." Parker said, clearing the tears away from her throat, and joining in.

"Hey! I'm not hard, just protective!" Veronica protested, unsure whether she liked the fact that Parker saw her as invulnerable and strong.

"I'll tell you what, though, it wasn't me." Duncan finally spoke up.

"So I was right again; it was Logan." Veronica was satisfied with her triumph even as Logan silently reached into the Party Hog.

"'I got Weevil through high school algebra.' Well, whoever did that should be proud that they achieved the impossible." Logan commented.

"Hey, hey, I think you should acknowledge the fact that Weevil is a smart guy, he just doesn't like learning." Veronica defended her biker friend, as she scanned the room thinking who it could be. "So it's definitely not Parker, because she's never met Weevil, and was in Denver when we were in high school. Dick failed algebra, so he certainly couldn't pass anyone and Duncan was gone by finals. It wasn't me, which leaves Mac and Logan, and frankly I don't think Logan and Weevil would have survived in the same room for more than five minutes."

"What you don't know is that Weevil and I formed quite the crime-fighting team in senior year. We were looking for Felix's killer, and we worked out it was Thumper practically without your help." Logan defended himself. "But you're right about the algebra; it wasn't me either, so it must have been Mac."

"Yeah, me and Cassidy got him through, so he could graduate." Mac told her friends. "Not that it did him much good, huh?"

"Most memorable moment at Neptune High, that was." Logan agreed. "Except maybe the purity test scandal."

"Notice how Mac had a hand in both of those events." Veronica joked. "Maybe she's as cursed as I am."

"I actually think I am." Mac admitted, quietly. "Another boyfriend has gone down the drain."

"Come on, Mac, what guys do when you're with them isn't your fault." Duncan reasoned. "When I was with Veronica I abandoned her to kidnap the child I'd had with another girl, but it wasn't because I wasn't happy with her or anything. It was because of me."

"When I was with Veronica I set a public pool on fire, because I was seriously messed up, and when I was with Hannah I was still sleeping with Kendall." Logan admitted. "Guys are weird and messed up, and you shouldn't blame yourself for Cassidy or for any other guy who does something wrong or weird."

Mac smiled slightly. "I'm actually a bit bored of this game." She announced, getting up. "And you've guessed my secrets already, so I think I'm gonna go on the balcony and get a bit of air."

_Thursday 9__th__ June. 11.30 p.m._

"Do they often fall asleep like that?" Parker whispered to Dick, staring at her boyfriend, her friend and the man she'd just met.

Dick looked over at them too. He was hardly surprised to find that the boys had fallen asleep with Veronica squashed between them, each with an arm over her waist. They were on the floor, and had basically fallen asleep where they sat, but it was the same way that they had fallen asleep when Lilly had been dating someone who wasn't Logan, or Logan had been dating someone that wasn't Lilly. He'd come by Logan's house to find the three of them on the couch after a movie night in that exact position. "They used to, yeah."

"What's the deal with that Duncan guy, then?" Parker had held in her curiosity since Duncan had barged in, but now that she had the chance to ask someone, she felt that she must take it.

"He was Veronica's first boyfriend, Logan's best friend and brother to the famous Lilly Kane." Dick replied. Duncan was a subject he knew well. Logan had always come to him when he needed to bitch about his other best friend, and only Dick knew just how jealous of Duncan Logan had always been. "He, Lilly, Veronica and Logan were the 'Fabulous Four' at the beginning of high school, before Lilly died. Then there was a whole load of drama, resulting in everyone being the way they are to this day, and there was a whole thing about 'ooh maybe Duncan and Veronica are siblings.' And then Logan dated Veronica and Duncan was still in love with her, and then Duncan dated Veronica and Logan was still in love with her, and then Duncan ran away to some far away country to save his baby from his dead ex-girlfriend's parents." Parker looked shocked. "Or something like that."

"Logan and Veronica always acted like high school was one big soap opera for them, but I didn't think it actually was one!" She exclaimed, looking back over at her friends. Veronica was curled into Logan's chest, and Duncan seemed like a bit of an afterthought.

"She always faces the one she's most comfortable with." Dick told her. "That's what Logan told me when we were fifteen, and I've never had cause to doubt it. It used to always be Duncan."

Parker nodded slowly. "He's going to break up with me, isn't he." It wasn't a question.

"Probably." Dick agreed. "But it's not gonna be for some random hottie, like it would be if I was Logan."

"Yeah, I guess it's some consolation that he'll be going back to Veronica; the girl he's meant to be with." She said, flatly. "She'll take him back regardless of my feelings, won't she." Again, it wasn't a question.

"I think you have to realise that Logan and Veronica are special." Mac commented, coming back in from the balcony at last. "At what passed for our senior Prom, he told Veronica that they were 'epic' and they are. They always go back to each other."

"I guess I can live with that." Parker decided. "After all, he wasn't the love of my life, I wasn't his. It's not like he's breaking my heart, just hurting me a bit."

"He really liked you; he told me." Mac comforted her. "He said that it was nice to be dating someone he didn't have to worry about 24/7."

"At least I gave him a bit of a break. And it was nice to feel cared about." She smiled. "But I'm not gonna let him dump me." Mac and Dick looked at her, confused. "I'm going to dump him. Soon."

Having made up her mid to that effect, she strolled into Logan's bedroom to get some sleep.

"Wow, our friends are more than a little messed up." Dick commented quietly.

"Yeah, but if they weren't then we'd be the messed up ones." Mac reasoned. "This way there's always weirdos to take the spotlight off us."

_Friday 10__th__ June. 12.30 a.m._

"Logan. Logan, I'm bored." Dick said, shaking his best friend awake. Everyone else was asleep, but Dick was finding sleep a little hard and so had resorted to trying to make other people amuse him. Mac and Duncan had already kicked him and fallen asleep again. "Logan. Logan, entertain me."

"Piss off, Dick." Logan groaned, pulling Veronica closer to him. "Go read a book, or jerk off or something."

"Books are boring, and I only wanked an hour ago." Dick told him, confidently. "Too much makes you go blind, you know, man."

"Then go to sleep." Logan muttered.

"I can't. I had too much sugar earlier, and now I'm totally hyper." He bounced up and down to emphasise his point and suddenly got hit by a cushion flying out of nowhere.

"Go to fucking sleep, Dick." Veronica groaned, dropping her arm and snuggling further into Logan's chest.

"Will you entertain me, Ronnie?" Dick asked, knowing he would piss her off.

"Entertain yourself, Dick. Watch porn or something." She snapped.

"No, I think I want you to entertain me, Ronnie." Dick giggled, grabbing her arm and yanking her out of the embraces of her two exes, as she grumbled and protested.

Logan chuckled as he turned over. "Aren't you going to help me out here, Logan?" She appealed.

He closed his eyes. "Sorry, Ronnie, you're on your own now." He was asleep again within minutes.

"Some friend he is." Veronica grumbled, as she sat down on the sofa next to Dick.

"Please, Ronster, we all know you two are more than friends again." The surfer responded, matter-of-factly.

"What? No we aren't!" She protested.

"Even Parker knows it, and she's not the most observant chick." He patted her arm. "The bright side is we all think it's the right thing for you two, even if it isn't for people like Piz and Parker. She's planning on dumping him very soon, so you two can try again."

"Man, I feel so guilty!" Veronica moaned, burying her face into a pillow. "Between us we screw up everyone else's happiness, just so that we can try again as a self-destructive, fucked-up couple. And now I'm bitching to you about it, and you don't even want to know any of this shit."

"Actually, Ronnie, I'm an ear if you need it. It's nice to know that two people who've caused each other so much grief can still want to try again and make things work."

"You've suddenly grown-up quite a lot, Dick." Veronica remarked. "Or maybe I just haven't noticed you doing it gradually, but this year you're finally being responsible and trying to get an education, and trying to build bridges and make things better for other people as well as you."

"I'm glad someone's finally noticed it." Dick admitted, privately marvelling at how Veronica had got him from hyper to sober in minutes. "I've been trying really hard, and the only recognition I've had is Logan saying 'hey we should get a real house, man, I feel like we could actually deal with that this year'."

"Mac's noticed." Veronica told him, noting the ecstatic look on his face when she said this. "She's been saying it all year, and I've been laughing it off as her trying to defend you when we have bitching sessions, but she's noticed you being more mature and stuff. She was the one that told me that you two were having conversations and being buddies and stuff, even if it was a bit superficial."

"Maybe now that Logan's made us get all our shit out into the open we can have a shot at something real." Dick mused, unconsciously revealing himself to Veronica, who was looking at him with a calculating look.

"You like her, huh?"

"What? No. I do not like Ghost World." Dick said, firmly, blushing in the darkness.

"You like her." Veronica sang. "You want 'a shot at something real' and you were over the moon when I said she'd noticed you maturing!"

"Mac's a buddy." Dick said. "A hot buddy…a buddy who can beat me at Call of Duty…a buddy who's been through what I have and still wants to talk to me…" He trailed off, looking confused. "Do I like Mac?"

"Yes." Veronica told him, kindly, patting his arm. They both glanced over at the brunette sleeping on Dick's bed, the door still open. "And if it makes you feel better, I have a feeling she likes you too, at least a little bit."

"Will you help me work out if she does?" Dick asked.

"What's the game plan, bud?" Veronica liked their friendship. It had taken her breaking up with Logan three times, and Dick finally getting over what happened to Cassidy, but she and Dick had been friends for several months and whether they were clubbing, talking music, or having more heartfelt conversations, she was glad they'd managed to forgive each other and move on.

"Spin the Bottle."

"I should have known it would involve some juvenile game that also gives you the opportunity to kiss Parker and me while you're at it." She sighed. "You wake the girls, I'll get the guys."

_Friday 10__th__ June. 1.00 a.m._

"Richard Casablancas, I thought we'd weaned you off Spin the Bottle last year." Mac huffed, as she sat down next to Duncan, completing the circle. "This is really stupid, guys."

"I agree, can we not just go back to sleep?" Logan moaned, from his vantage point between Veronica and Parker.

"Come on, Logan, this used to be your favourite game!" Veronica chided him.

"Yeah, when it was an excuse to kiss you without Lilly giving a shit fit. And I seem to recall that you hated this game and always have."

"Maybe I've come around." Veronica said firmly, before leaning over to whisper in his ear. "And maybe I'm helping out a friend. Now shut up and play the game."

Logan looked confused for a second, before sitting down between Veronica and Parker. Dick raised his eyebrows from his seat across the circle, mouthing the word 'awkward', before placing the bottle in the centre of the circle.

"Chardonnay? God, whatever happened to playing with a Coke bottle?" Parker asked, staring at the empty bottle of expensive wine.

"People play spin the bottle with Coke bottles?" Veronica asked, cheerfully. "Back in the day we used to play with Moet champagne or sometimes JD."

"Champagne? Where you guys like the hedonists of your school or something?" Parker exclaimed, incredulously.

"Actually, Ronnie was one of the most reserved people in our year. You know, up until Sophmore year." Dick commented. "It was Lilly that was the hedonist."

"She certainly enjoyed the pleasures of life." Logan mused. "October's coming up."

The statement hung in the air, as the five natives of Neptune were silent and contemplative, and Parker tried to work out the significance of that month.

"Right, well, anyway, Spin the Bottle!" Veronica broke the silence, and leaned into the circle. "Quick recap of the rules; you have to kiss whoever it lands on, regardless of gender."

"Aaw, man, Ronica, I'm not drunk enough to face kissing Dick or Logan." Duncan moaned, putting his head in his hands. "I don't think I'll ever be drunk enough."

"You've done it before, Duncan." Veronica pointed out, mildly, as Dick and Logan made kissing faces at him. "Anyway, first time you hit someone it's just a peck on the lips, but if you land on that person again then you've gotta make out for at least 30 seconds."

Everyone nodded.

"You're very enthusiastic about this Ronnie, anyone you really wanna kiss?" Logan joked.

"No one I haven't kissed before." She replied, spinning the bottle sharply.

Everyone watched as it swung around, before landing on Duncan. Veronica grinned and crawled over to her ex-boyfriend and one time brother, giving him a peck on the lips.

"I knew you couldn't resist me, Ronica." Duncan joked.

"Sorry, DK, but I don't do fathers." She replied, winking at him as she sat down again. "Your go."

_Friday 10__th__ June, 2.02 a.m._

Dick sighed in frustration. Half an hour of spin the bottle had yielded no results. His usually foolproof trick of spinning the bottle in a way that ensured the outcome of your choice was not working. Perhaps it was that he wasn't used to wine bottles, which were lighter than champagne bottles. Whatever the reason, he hadn't been able to kiss Mac – not even a peck – and now everyone, even his ally Veronica, had lost interest in the game.

"I can't believe I had to kiss Logan but I didn't get to kiss the girl I wanted to." Dick grumbled, as he sat down on the sofa next to Veronica.

"I'm sorry, Dick, but it was getting boring. I thought you had a trick for spin the bottle, anyway." She patted his arm in sympathy.

"I thought I did too! But it didn't work today, because I kept getting Logan, which wasn't my plan at all." He replied, sinking down into the sofa.

"Well, maybe we can try one of my plans now." She suggested. Dick looked at her expectantly. "You just go over there and tell her how you feel." She said, slowly and clearly.

"What? That's a terrible plan, Ronster. Absolutely horrible. That involves the chance of me getting majorly shot down, and I'm just not up for that. What's one of your other plans?"

"Well, my other plan is that I go over there and tell her for you." Veronica replied, chuckling. "That's way more embarrassing in every way."

"Dude! Friends aren't meant to give each other options like that! This sucks!"

"Make your choice, Casablancas."

_Friday 10__th__ June, 2.34 a.m._

Mac was working on Parker's computer and chatting to her, when Dick tentatively made his way over to them. She glanced up and smiled, pleased to see her friend coming over for a chat. If she was honest with herself, she would have been more than happy to be more than friends with Dick, if she'd had the chance.

He seemed nervous and awkward as he sat on the floor beside her. "Hey, uh, Parker, do you think you could give us a minute?" He asked, his voice coming out gruffly.

She nodded and moved over to where Logan was sitting and catching up with Duncan, and sat down, kissing him on the cheek.

"So, uh, Mac, I, uh, wanted to talk to you." Dick said, bashfully.

Mac had never ever seen him act this way. It was almost as if he was intimidated by her. "Sure, what's up, Dick?"

"Oh, you know, not much, just uh, chilling till I find out the results of my test. I really hope I don't have Hepatitis, you know, cos there's, uh, this girl that I really wanna take out once we get out of here, if she'll let me." He shot Mac what he thought was a meaningful look, as he rambled.

"Um, that's great for you, I guess…" Mac didn't really know what to say to that. She glanced around the room, and noticed Veronica trying to spy on them from behind her laptop. For a P.I in training, she wasn't very subtle. "But what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Didn't I just say?" Dick asked, confused.

Mac thought back over what he'd told her and tried to make sense of it all. "You want my help asking out a girl that you like?"

"No…" Dick was worried now, maybe she hadn't understood him. Maybe he'd been difficult to understand.

"You wanted to tell me that you like a girl?"

"It's you!" He blurted out. "The girl I like and want to ask out is you!" She looked shocked, and more than a little scared. Shit, Dick thought, this really wasn't going how he'd hoped. "If, uh, that's okay with you…"

"You want to go out with me?" She asked, as if clarifying.

"More than anything, Mackster." He said, sincerely.

"Well, Dick, I'd love to go out with you, too." She replied, softly.

As soon as she'd said it, Dick let out a loud whoop, causing the other occupants of the room to glance over at him, and kissed Mac firmly on the lips. When he looked around again, he saw three shocked faces looking at him, and one satisfied one. Veronica had obviously been watching the whole time, making sure that nothing went too badly wrong, and was overjoyed, but unsurprised by the outcome.

"Mac, you do realise that you just kissed Dick, right? As in Dick Casablancas?" Logan asked, incredulously.

Mac nodded smiling.

"This is so out of the blue." Parker breathed. "I never would have predicted that, would you, Veronica?"

The blonde glanced over at her P.I friend, and noticed the expression on her face. She nudged Logan who also looked over and saw.

"So this was all your engineering, Ronnie?" He asked.

"I did no engineering, Logan; you make me sound like Lilly. No, I just helped Dick along a little bit. He needed a way to tell Mac how he felt, and I found one." She replied, indignantly.

"Well, in the spirit of saying how we feel," Parker said, "Logan, I want to break up."

Her friends stared at her in shock, although this time it was Dick's turn to look knowing.

"Can I ask why?" Logan asked, calmly.

"You're still in love with Veronica, and she's still in love with you. It's a matter of days before you dump me and get back together with her, so I wanted to pre-empt you." She explained. "Parker Lee doesn't get dumped, especially not for another girl."

Logan looked embarrassed at having been caught out lusting after his ex by his current girlfriend. Veronica looked mortified.

"Parker, I am so sorry! I never meant to make you feel bad or hurt." She exclaimed, honestly.

"Don't worry, Veronica, I don't blame you for feeling the way you do about Logan. He's a special guy. But you two are…" She grinned. "Epic. You two are epic."

Veronica and Logan looked at each other in shock, but the other occupants of the room could only agree with her statement.

_Friday June 10__th__, 4.27 a.m._

"So, 'epic' huh?" Duncan grinned.

"I feel like my relationships always have, like, captions these days." Veronica replied. "Epic; spanning years and continents, lives ruined, bloodshed. And then of course there was 'True love stories never have endings'."

Duncan blushed slightly at that one. "Any others?"

They were sitting on the floor, leaning against Logan's bed, finally catching up while the others slept.

"With Piz it was probably 'Comfortably Numb'." She laughed.

"Pink Floyd or Scissor Sisters?" He asked, knowingly.

"Scissor Sisters. Although I kind of wish it had been as awesome as the Pink Floyd version; a legacy to be remembered. So are you moving back here for good?"

"At least for a couple of years. My dad wants me to start managing the firm with him, and it'll be good for Lilly to grow up around her family."

"And her Aunt Veronica, don't forget."

"And her Uncle Logan. She'll be able to go over to her Aunt and Uncle's for dinner on Fridays or something, and to get boy advice."

"What makes you so sure that she'll be able to see both Godparents at once?"

"Come on, V; you and Logan are practically back together again, and if your relationship really is so epic then you're gonna be together for a long time. I hope you will be anway." Duncan slung an arm round her shoulder.

"I'm glad you're back. And that we're still best friends after everything." Veronica admitted.

As she said this, Logan came into the room, stretching and rubbing his eyes. "Hey, don't you two want to get some sleep?"

"That's probably a good idea." Duncan laughed, standing up. "I'm gonna see if there's space for me on the couch, and leave you two alone." He wandered out and into the main living room area.

"Ah, finally, alone at last." Logan sighed, extending a hand to pull Veronica up.

"Been waiting for this moment, have you?" She teased, standing up.

He pulled her into a hug and buried his face in her hair. "I've been waiting for this practically since we broke up. You have no idea how much I've missed just being able to touch you."

"I missed you too." She replied, leaning up and kissing him softly. "But right now, I think we should get some sleep."

"Good plan." He started walking backwards, still clutching Veronica close to him, until he hit the bed. They lay down, and fell asleep still in each other's arms.

_Friday June 10__th__, 6.57 a.m._

Parker was woken by voices around her and sat up abruptly. She'd fallen asleep in one of the armchairs the night before, and slept soundly and peacefully, having almost forgotten about the tests that were being done on her blood. Her memory returned full force though, when she saw the doctor standing in the room, talking to Dick and Mac.

"So, everything is fine?" Dick asked.

"You're clean, Mr Casablancas. You're also very lucky. I'd advise you to stop doing whatever it is that keeps getting you in the way of harmful diseases." Dr Porter replied.

"You don't have to worry about that, Dr P, my girl here will keep me in line." Dick's arm tightened around Mac's shoulder, as he looked at her adoringly.

Parker stood. "Am I okay, Dr Porter?"

"You're fine dear, very healthy, as is everyone else. If you could tell Miss Mars and Mr Echolls that, I'll be on my way."

"We will, Dr P." Dick told her, smiling as he held the door open for her.

"Have a nice day." Parker called, always polite. "Where are Logan and Veronica anyway?"

"Next door, possibly nude." Duncan commented, standing up from his spot on the sofa and stretching. "I'll go check on them, it's nothing I haven't seen before from either of them."

He wandered into Logan's bedroom, as the others started inspecting the breakfast menu. Duncan grinned at the sight in front of him. Logan's hand was hidden under Veronica's skirt, as the two slept, legs entwined, with looks of complete innocence on their faces.

"It's almost a shame to wake them." Duncan mused, before yelling, "Wake up lovebirds!"

They both groaned and opened their eyes. "What the fuck is wrong with you, man?" Logan grumbled.

"I thought you'd like to know that Dr Porter has been and gone, and you're both clean." He replied, innocently.

"As if we didn't already know that." Veronica snarked, burying her face in Logan's chest.

"Do you guys want any breakfast?"

"I think I speak for both of us when I say that what we really want is more sleep." Logan growled. Duncan shrugged and left the room, closing the door behind him. "Thank God he's gone." Veronica grinned. "I really wanna do all kinds of naughty things to you, to celebrate our reconciliation, but I'm just so damn tired."

"Same here. How about we sleep for a few more hours, while the others get bored and leave for the real world, and then we can stay in and do things all day."

"What do you have in mind?" Logan wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Lets just say that you'll never be able to look my dad in the eye again." Veronica replied, kissing him, before burrowing back into his arms and trying to fall asleep again.

Logan moaned in anticipation. "God I love you."

"You can just call me Veronica." She sniped. "I love you too, now let me sleep!"


End file.
